Electronic devices, such as portable media players, cellular phones, personal digital assists (PDAs), and the like, are prevalent in today's marketplace, as are the peripheral electronic devices that support their use, such as docking stations and the like. As competition in the personal electronics marketplace becomes ever more heated, consumers have become more demanding in terms of both the functionality and use of such devices.
Users listen to, watch, or otherwise receive and consume content in a variety of contexts. For example, it is common to listen to music while driving, riding public transit, exercising, hiking, doing chores, or the like. Additionally, users now are more often using media players to receive radio, television, and satellite broadcasts, Global Positioning and other broadcast-based location services for navigation and recreation in addition to the playback of content stored on the media players.
Media players can be configured to allow a user to browse content stored on the device. Typically, users browse and discover content using a media player by navigating through metadata or other information about the content, such as the filename, title, album information, or the like. Thus, user may focus on the metadata to procure the content in which user may be interest. Problems may arise when users attempt to navigate and procure content with media players that do not include a user interface capable of displaying the metadata to the user. Additionally, users engaged in various activities, such as driving or doing chores, may prefer not to focus significant attention to the media player to browse content.
Media players can also be configured to receive content or other media assets from a variety of sources. In the case of radio or other broadcasts, users may manually switch between various stations or frequencies to find songs or programs on those stations that the users like. Often, users might not readily know when the next song or television program is about to start. Thus, users simply may randomly explore different stations in an attempt to discover content that may be playing.
When users may know when the next song or program is to begin, the users may miss the beginning of the song or program, or the content altogether, unless the user is actively monitoring a content schedule and the time. It may become frustrating for users who desire to procure interesting content from a variety of sources due because the users may forget to constantly observe program scheduling and manually switch between sources.
Accordingly, what is desired are improved methods and apparatus for solving the problems discussed above. Additionally, what is desired are improved methods and apparatus for reducing some of the drawbacks discussed above.